Sunday Morning Reflections

It's Sunday 12/11 here now and, like last week, we slept in and had brunch. Working 10+ hrs a day takes its toll and so on Sundays we are only working half a day.

Thanks for the comments/questions. From WA, Ricco's suggestion that we are in a scary movie has crossed our minds. There is of course John Carpenter's 1982 remake of "The Thing" where an alien bacteria is found under the ice and starts to mutate the staff at a remote Antarctic research station. I also saw another lower-budget one where an alien escape pod is excavated in Antarctica. While some such discovery would be exciting, our experience is more like camping in the wilderness. The loss of email and web access just meant we had to ponder questions for a while instead of looking them up instantly; much like being without our cell networks. A healthy break I'd say, and a relief after the shock of it (what? no internet?).

Mary in WA brought up the crowding aspect of living in tents here. It's certainly nice to have private tents to sleep in at night, and though noise from 20 feet away carries rather easily...falling asleep has not been a problem. We are all in the main tent together for meals, and many times after dinner, and often our work involves having three or four of us in the tent all day. It's pretty comfortable, but space is limited. We have about 1/3 of the space dedicated to food and cooking (see above pic), and 1/3 for equipment and computers, and the last 1/3rd for chairs where people leave personal items, gloves, mugs, jackets. Now that the weather has warmed a bit, the wooden floor to the tent is a bit wobbly (no longer supported by snow which has since melted from the tent's heat). I'd say the crowding factor is small because when it's cold you just want to sit in a warm spot drinking something hot among friends, and when it's warm you want to get out of the tent and enjoy the vast and beautiful views of Mt. Morning for example (here's a pic I just took this morning of Bija taking a picture of Mt. Morning to our West).

Well, the weather has changed a number of times here. The first few days had totally clear skies and bright sun, requiring us to lather SPF45 suntan lotion on our faces, ears, etc 2 or 3 times a day to avoid sunburn. The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere blocks harmful UV radiation from the sun most everywhere on Earth, but the CFC's they used to put in spray cans and basically anything that releases Chlorine gas into the atmosphere has depleted the ozone and so there is a huge hole over most all of Antarctica. Chlorine and similar gasses act as a catalyst in the breakdown of ozone so that's why CA law says you can't refill your own freon in your air-conditioning system, and why Nike stopped putting SF6 (Sulfur Hexaflouride) in their Nike Air shoes (SF6 has great compressibility characteristics).

Anyway, the worst weather we've had here just barely reached condition 2 (3=no problem, 2 = go home now it's too dangerous to be out, 1 = stay in whatever shelter you are in now, in order to stay alive). It was about 20F (rather warm for condition 2), about 20mph wind (a bit low for condition 2), and visibility was about 200meters (a bit long for condition 2). Normally the wind drifts snow into us from the South (just like a sandstorm in the desert will move sand dunes), and here replacing all trails and pits with a level surface and about 1/2 foot of fresh powder (too bad we're not skiing on it!). A second bout of windy weather came through later and with it snow fell, and the temperature was up to the low 30's F so things were quite wet. We got some horizontal icicles on the solar power tower. The last couple days we've had intermittent high fog/low-laying clouds.

As a result the helicopter that was scheduled to pick up Jordan, Bija, and Julia on the evening on 12/8 has been delayed. Joulien, Nate and I are planning to stay on the ice through 12/16 unless we finish our tasks before that. The helicopters don't fly on Sundays so tomorrow if the weather is clear our party may become smaller. Bija's excellent experience, cooking, and steady support will be missed. She's been in Antarctica 8 seasons including one winter-over, and is from Seattle. This is Julia's first year here; she's a general assistant who hails from Wisconsin. Jordan's been on this project many years at UCI for this PhD thesis and was here last year. We hope he can make his flight home in time for an upcoming wedding.
Here are some pics that show the snow drift. The obstructions create ridges of new snow on either side, so our tents are like boats cresting waves on some alien ocean. Walking around in huge rubber boots ("bunny boots") and enormous parkas makes it seem even more like we're on the moon. So much fun, kicking fresh powder with bunny boots!